Vanishings
by Bluedolphz
Summary: The Hermes cabin has always been looked pass. Yet disappearances have started happening, and the Hermes cabin seems highly involved. Xandra might be able to stop the disappearances, and another war, yet it would mean going back to a place she hasn't been since the was eight. Can she manage to convince the other part of her family to stop with nothing but a way of words?
1. Chapter 1

Footsteps echoed as I ran. I had to get away. My pursuer was on my heels, but I couldn't fight him. Not him. I just couldn't.

_Lead him to the basement. _That was the plan. Then she would take care of him. _I don't have to fight him; I just have to survive him. _I turned sharply left, even though I knew that he was prepared for this. He knew me too well. I couldn't trick him.

I was distracted; so distracted that I barely noticed the stairs I was running down. My hand clenched the paper. If I lost it, then the whole mission would be in vain. This was our last chance. If I lost that paper…

Why couldn't I lose him? I had always been faster than him. Even if my leg was injured, even if I didn't have enough guts to turn around and fight him, I should've been able to outrun him. This mission couldn't fail. Lives were depending on this piece of paper.

Words painted the walls. I didn't have time to read them, but I knew what they said. _Liars. Traitors. _I wasn't a liar, I wasn't a traitor. They weren't describing me, they were describing themselves. _Liars. Traitors. _

_Thieves._

I had been running for ages now, but I couldn't tire. Not now, not when I was so close. Left, right, straight, left, down the stairs; I ran through the building without thinking about it. I heard panting behind me. I slowed. I hadn't been here before, but I had reached my destination. I was in the basement, so where was she?

_Liars. Traitors. Thieves. _Every wall seemed to be painted with those words. _Liars. Traitors. Thieves. _

It wasn't long before I hit a dead end. I turned around, momentarily pausing to catch my breath. If I sprinted back, and took a different turn… my thoughts were interrupted when I saw the silhouette form in front of me. I pulled my sword out, and with shaking hands pointed it in his direction.

_Liars. Traitors. Thieves. _Even these walls were painted with it.

"Not a step closer," I told him, my voice as steady as my hands. I couldn't hurt him, but if I disarmed him I could run away. She should be around here somewhere.

He was used to fighting with a disadvantage, so he was stronger on that side… I'd hit him where he least expected it, and run.

_Liars. Traitors. Thieves._

As if he was testing me, he took a step closer. His sword glowed; positioned at my chest. As I had guessed, his guard leaned towards his weaker side.

If I could surprise him, I could disarm him easily. But how could I disarm the person who knows all my tricks?

_Cut yourself off. _

"I'm not kid-" I started, but then lunged at his stronger side. My sword scraped his arm as the clunk of the sword hitting the floor sounded. I darted, tears forming in my eyes.

My leg ached. My feet screamed at me to stop. I knew I couldn't stop; I couldn't give up. Even if I was losing blood faster than I should've been. Even if every cut I ever had seemed to be reopened. For once the words on the wall encouraged me. I may have been a thief, but I wasn't a traitor. I might not be the most honest person in the world, but they were the liars. They were going to pay for it, too.

I heard swords clashing behind me. So she did come through.

"Xandra, wake up!" Almost the second I hear it, my brother's voice jolted me out of my dream. I opened my eyes to see Travis leaning over me, his face full of concern. My cheeks felt wet; I had been crying in my sleep.

"Is it morning yet?" I asked, though I was pleased to be awoken from my nightmare. I wiped my cheeks with my sleeves and sat up against the wall behind me.

"I don't think there has been a single morning this quiet." Travis replied, leaning back on the bed post.

"I don't ever remember a single night this quiet since Crystal came," I responded, noticing the lack of noise coming from the bunk above me. Travis glanced up.

"She's out. And if she gets into any form of trouble…"

"She'll be fine. She's not stupid enough to get to close to the borders." Lately there have been several disappearances at camp, and a lot of them seemed to be from our cabin. Nobody knew what monsters wanted from the god of thieves' children. We were all talented; we had the best at swordplay, wrestling, archery, and we all could run fast. We didn't like to advertise that, though. None of us liked bragging. A lot of the other campers liked us, but not because of our talents. Our popularity came from the prankster side ever child of Hermes had; the side that laughed a lot and told jokes and could get along with anybody.

Nobody would target us thinking one of us would amount to a hero. There were several of the other cabins that were more of the heroic type; cabins that seemed to have been ignored by these monsters. As far as I could tell, there were only four other cabins that have been having this problem: Athena, Ares, Hephaestus, and Apollo.

"I know, but if I get blamed for one more of her pranks…" Travis stated. While everyone in the cabin had pulled at least one prank, Travis and Connor were almost always blamed for any prank. Exceptions mainly included pranks on them or our cabin.

"What makes you think that you'd get blamed?" I asked. Travis crossed his arms.

"What makes you think I won't? Anyways, it wasn't her that I had to wake up in the middle of the night due to a nightmare."

"Sorry."

"Don't be. It's your fifth nightmare in a row… you're worrying me." I hesitated for a moment. He was right, I've had nightmares before. None like this, though.

"It's probably just war aftermath. They aren't related."

"It could be, but you're a demigod. We don't normally have normal dreams."

"I've noticed." I had been at camp since I was eight. I knew about things like that very well.

"So, will you tell me what it's about?"

I thought for a moment before answering with, "I was running away from somebody. I don't remember who, but it was somebody I cared about. A-a boy, I'm pretty sure. I got lost, and he cornered me. I lashed out at him, scraped his arm, and ran away. Then you woke me up."

"Was there anything else?" It might've been my imagination, but he sounded worried.

I remember the writing on the walls. _Liars. Traitors. Thieves. _It didn't seem relevant, so was it worth mentioning? I would've felt silly telling anybody else, but I knew I could tell Travis anything.

"There was writing on the wall."

"Do you remember what it said?" He definitely sounded worried.

"Yeah, it was something about liars and thieves… and traitors."

"Traitors? It might've been a dream then. When you said you cared about that boy…"

"It wasn't Luke." Even at the thought of him my heart ached, but I knew it wasn't him.

"I didn't think so." He hesitated. "Do you think it could've been Ethan?" That caught me off guard. I hadn't thought about Ethan in a while. His betrayal had hurt, but losing your crush or your best friend to the enemy isn't half as bad as losing multiple siblings.

It did make sense, though. Ethan had lost his eye, making his vision not as good. So, of course, he would've been expecting an attack on that side. I used to have a crush on him, but he died during the Titan War. If I got him back just to lose him again…

"Could've been, but if it had then I think the dream would – where did you get that idea from?"

"Let's just say that you're not the only one having weird dreams." I have never heard him toss and turn at night, or make any noise except when waking up a sibling from a nightmare. The idea that he had been having nightmares surprised me.

The campers had the impression that the Stolls were loud, noisy, and never serious. It wasn't far from the truth on most days. They were jokers for sure, but nobody outside of the Hermes cabin knew just how comforting the Stolls could be. They had become the head counselors for a broken cabin at young age. Somehow, even if they were the pranksters everybody else knew, they had repaired the damage Luke left.

Well, they repaired as much as was repairable.

That morning started off normal. It took ten minutes for everybody to wake up, and we were ten minutes late – that's the earliest we've ever been – to breakfast. Breakfast consisted of the normal jokes, name calling, and teasing as it always did. After breakfast, as always, was sword class.

After Luke left, one of Ares' sons by the name of Mark took over sword training. Mark was a buff guy with various tattoos on his arms. He never wore anything but tank tops; today he wore the camp T-shirt with the sleeves ripped off. His pants hung so low it was a miracle he could sword fight at all without falling over, much less teach a class. He was tan, as most campers were, and he had his black hair done in a crew cut. His blue eyes were intimidating, but I barely flinched when he glared at me.

We started the class with the normal destroy-the-dummies-with-complicated-techniques drill before moving on to dueling. Mark paired us up; I was paired with Chris.

Chris looked the opposite of Mark. He was tan and fairly muscular, but not as much as Mark. He wasn't the best at sword fighting, but he could pull off some of the hardest sneak attacks. Instead of Mark's perfect, tuff guy hair, Chris had sloppy hair that he was constantly brushing out of his eyes. His brown eyes always gleamed mischievously; a sure sign he belonged in Cabin 11.

Chris and I were a good match for each other. Both of us had the "Hermes style", as it was called. We dodged more than blocked, and we could feint a blow perfectly. Neither of us were offensive fighters. When we placed a blow, it was always successful and never predictable. Putting the two of us together meant one of us had to go on the offense more than normal. That was normally me.

I was distracted today, though. My mind didn't want to focus on anything. Chris easily disarmed me, and turned his attention on the Mark-Connor fight.

Connor wasn't strong, but he was fast. Compared to Mark, he was a twig, and a short one. He only came up to Mark's shoulder. His brown, messy hair continually got in his face, but it never seemed to distract him. He dodged every blow without even thinking. I knew that the second he chose to strike Mark's sword would be clattering on the ground.

I was no less distracted during the other activities. I was last at foot racing, having tripped over my feet a couple of times. I was soaking after canoeing, and it was a miracle if I hit the target during archery. I should've been a lot more focused, especially considering all of the disappearances, but all I could think about was that dream.

Demigod dreams are normally from an outside-looking-in perspective, not the way my dream was. Most likely, it was just a dream. Yet it felt so real.

And if the Stolls were also having these dreams…

"Are you okay?" Crystal asked the tenth time she'd pinned me in wrestling.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I responded.

"You seem distracted."

"Yeah, I had a bad dream last night. That's all." I was glad that Krystal didn't ask for any more details.

Wrestling ended early when Will Solstice from the Apollo cabin came in. Apparently Chiron needed Clarisse and the Stolls for a meeting.

Whatever it was, Will didn't seem pleased about it.

There was a stock of sodas and junk food in our cabin. Being children of Hermes, we were the only ones who managed to sneak the foods in, which means we get good business. It was difficult, keeping the secret from Chiron and the few tattle-tellers, but we managed. Mr. D never cared, and his only son Pollux loved the soda. We charged the other campers – though it didn't take long before they found that some of us were nicer than others. We, of course, took whatever we wanted from the stock.

I sat on my bed, drinking the Mountain Dew without thinking about it. The cabin was a mess, even though our numbers have dropped in the past couple of weeks. None of the beds were made and trash was scattered around the room. Crystal's pillow had ended up on the floor. Decorations hung up on the wall around each demigod's bed.

On my portion of the wall, I had several sketches. Most of them were scenes from capture the flag. I had not actually seen several of them, but given the other campers descriptions I had taken a shot at them. Most of them were recent; newer drawings replaced old ones. Some were old; I tended to leave the ones that showed Hermes victories up longer.

There was one that was so old that the design had faded. It showed a college-aged boy grabbing the flag as Athena's kids battled with the Ares cabin around him. His blonde hair had long since faded, and the blue in his eyes were barely noticeable. The only defining feature still visible was the scar running along his cheek. Nevertheless, I could never forget who he was. Even with a dozen pictures on the wall, my eyes always found that one picture of him. Of Luke.

Today my mind wandered to the first day I met him. It wasn't the typical these-are-your-siblings meeting, with a lot of warm feelings. My parents had dropped me off – at age eight – to find my own way around camp. I now know that they couldn't come in, but not then. I was in tears. I had no desire to be here; I hadn't known about the camp until that morning. Luckily Chiron had known about me; he met me at the top of the hill. Luke was fifteen at the time, and it didn't take long until I felt I could rely on him. Now I wonder if I was wrong.

I haven't seen my mortal family since.

That didn't mean I didn't remember them. My mom and stepdad owned a sandwich shop, but they never got business. I had an older brother that reminded me of Athena's children. I also had a younger brother, but he was fairly young the last time I saw him.

Most people knew nothing about my family; it was rare that anybody knew my last name. I hated it when people called my full name: Alexandra. I despised being called Alex. Even so, I still thought about them every night.

I wondered how different I would've been growing up in the city instead of at camp. Who would I have been if I hadn't grown up with pranksters? What would it be like growing up with technology? How would it feel if I never had to worry about disappearances or monsters or if I hadn't fought in two wars? If I had never been betrayed?

I finished the soda, and casually tossed the can in the trash. I laid down, thinking I could make up the sleep I lost last night. Between that and being beaten by my brothers all day, I was tired. I fell asleep the second my head hit the pillow.

As soon as the dreams came, I regretted my decision.

_Liars. Traitors. Thieves._


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Wizards of Waverly Place or PJatO/HoO. All rights to their rightful owners. **

I generally don't like being slapped awake. Yet, when my new anonymous chaser had me by the arm, I felt a surge of relief when Travis woke me up. Even if he did it by slapping paper in my face.

It took me a minute to figure out what exactly was the white thing that Travis so kindly woke me up with. I yanked the mysterious white paper out of his hand and gave his arm a couple of slaps as I sat up. He stepped back out of my reach.

"You could've just woke me up yourself!" I told him.

"Well, I tried!" He retorted. I threw the paper at him, or at least tried. It's nearly impossible to hit a target with a piece of paper, unless you crumple the piece of paper up. I didn't want to do that, in case it was important.

"Oh, sure."

"I did!" He was grinning, a mischevious grin that didn't help either of us. He could've been straight-out lying or telling the truth, I couldn't tell.

"Right, then… what did I wake up too?" I asked sarcastically.

"A white, paper envelope with your name on the front." He held up the slip of paper.

"My name is on the front?" I didn't have any friends outside of camp. Most demigods didn't.

"Yeah, it is. See?" He held the envelope right about two inches from my face. I snatched it out of his hands. Printed nicely on the front, so big not even my dyslexia kept me from understanding it, was my name._ Alexandra Russo._ But who would write to me?

"I guess so. Whose it from?"

"Check in the corner." I did, feeling a little stupid. My dad was the messenger god. I should know where to look. I scanned my eyes over the address. Normally I wouldn't be able to read it, but I could read this just fine…

And I didn't like what I read…

"It's from my mom." I said softly. I glanced up at Travis. The playful grin from our earlier conversation had vanished.

"Why would she write to me?" I asked him.

"Read it," he told me, sitting down on the bed across from me. I opened it up stiffly. I knew they weren't supposed to write to me. My stepdad couldn't even mention me. If any of his type found out what I was…

Yet here was a letter from my mom. Even if she was completely mortal, this had to be risky.

I pulled the letter out of the envelope. I skimmed through the letter, noticing that it appeared a little too easy to read. The first page of three consisted mostly of apologies and excuses for dropping me off and ignoring me for nine years. The second page gave some cool things that my family did, without me, and these boring facts continued to the first half of the third page. I stopped at the end of the letter, shocked.

"They want me to visit them." I muttered. "After they just left me here, they want me to come and visit them. Why would they think I'd do that?!" Anger replaced the shock. Did they really think I'd do that? I had no intentions of going back there! I pushed myself off the bed.

"Actually…" Travis started uneasily.

"Actually what? You don't think that I'd go?" I paced around the room.

"Xandra…"

"They abandoned me!"

"Xandra…"

"I'm never going back there!"

"Xandra…"

"What!" I turned to face him.

"You… you need to go."

"What! Why would you say that!"

"I've… there's been… it's complicated. But, you need to go."

"I do?

"Yeah… listen, it's about… you know…" I sat down.

"My stepdad?" Out of everything I disliked about my past, the thing I hated the most was what my dad was. Why? The demigods weren't the only magical thing out there, and normally anything else magical had a serious disliking for demigods. And he was… well….

He was a wizard.

Wizards and demigods didn't get along. They never had, and they never will. Considering that my mom was married to wizard, and both of my brothers were wizards, living at home would be dangerous to me. I could fit in – demigods could easily perform the same spells as wizards – but if anybody found out, I'd be in trouble.

"Yeah… well, not him specifically."

"So, what do you want me to do?"

"Nothing really, it's just that ignoring your parents wouldn't be smart."

"Yeah, but would going back help any? I don't think we'll be getting along easily."

"It won't hurt." I considered this for a moment.

"Exactly what is happening?"

"There's been a couple of disagreements lately. They're not happy after something went wrong on a quest, and they might take revenge. It won't escalate to a war, hopefully, but nobody wants any type of conflict. Of course, we don't know whether they're already cursing us or something."

"You don't mean…"

"Yeah, I mean the vanishings." Quietness filled the cabin, yet my thoughts were anything but calm. I didn't want to go back, but if there was conflict going on… the disappearances that had been going on, if I could stop them… I couldn't just ignore it.

"Fine, I'll do it." Travis gave me a slight smile.

"I thought so." He hesitated, and his smile faded. "Listen, this'll be dangerous. You'll be going into enemy territory."

"I know."

"If anything happens, don't be afraid to contact us. Just… be safe. I don't want you to get hurt."

"Okay. So when do I leave?"

"You'll have to sort that out with Chiron and your parents."

I arranged to leave on that Saturday, which gave me three more days at camp. Every day was spent sorting through my belongings to pack – when you were a year-rounder in the Hermes cabin, you "lose" your things easily – and every night I had a nightmare. They were related; I would be running from somebody, and sometimes they'd catch me. Sometimes I'd get a brief glimpse of a boy helping me – a boy with my black hair and brown eyes. He seemed familiar.

That Friday night was no exception. After an exciting evening of crushing the Athena cabin in capture the flag, I fell asleep the second my head hit the pillow. Out of the nightmares, I had the best dream yet.

It didn't start out that way, though.

_I tripped over every small thing in my path. The tree branches caught in my hair. She came up my side, having equal problems with the rough terrain. The hill slanted up, not helping at all. My leg ached. There was no way we could outrun them. _

_ The underbrush we were running through changed to rocks. The steep slope transformed into steps, and we ran up them. I knew the terrain changed a lot; only the fit can get up to the roof. Finally, the rocks turned into smooth metal. Cold drops of water hit me as we ran across the wet roof. My foot hit a slippery patch, and I tumbled down to the ground. _

_ The metallic taste of blood was the only thing I was aware of for a moment. I must've bitten my lip. Then a cold hand… somebody was lifting me up. I was pulled up by a girl about seventeen. My ankle hurt, I couldn't put weight on it. _

_ Her lips moved, but I couldn't hear what she was saying. Her stormy grey eyes met mine, and I realized that I couldn't run and even though she could, she wasn't going to. _

I'm staying with you._ That's what she said. All around us, the walls were painted with those words. _Liars. Traitors. Thieves._ Her silver jacket was torn, and her Capri's looked more like shorts. I knew I didn't look any better. _

_ She helped me limp to a hiding place, and we curled up against each other. The water mixed with blood created a path to our hiding place, and I knew we were breathing loudly. They would see hear us if they didn't see us. I knew they would._

_ They rain let up, and with it went any hope of the blood being washed away. I felt hopeless. We couldn't win. _

_For a moment, though, moonlight peeked through. A feeling of calm washed over me. The blood disappeared, my breathing calmed. Something silver went past me, and I watch the edge of the roof – made of wood – break. _

_ Brilliant. _

_ I hear shouting. I could hear again! I could hear the boys screaming, the steps crumbling, and somebody calling my name. I didn't think I could ever feel this calm again. _

As I woke up, I tried to hold on to that calm for a moment before I realized somebody was saying my name. I opened my eyes to see Travis leaning over me.

"Your parents are here."


End file.
